Belarus’ Prosecutor General: damage from Nazi occupiers during Great Patriotic War exceeds $2tr

In his talk to the Belarus 1 TV channel, Belarus’ Prosecutor General Andrei Shved noted that the materials of the Prosecutor General's Office had been sent to the commission overseeing the reconstruction of the Khatyn Memorial Complex. According to him, at least 30 settlements shared the fate of Khatyn, and this has become known during the investigation of the criminal case.

“In October last year, a special government commission completed its work. It determined the material damage caused to the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic during the Great Patriotic War. The President was informed that the minimum amount of material damage from the Nazi occupiers made 43.5 thousand tonnes of gold, or $2 trillion 300 billion (at the current exchange rate),” Mr. Shved said.

According to the Prosecutor General, a serious work has been carried out to inform citizens on the results of the investigation of the criminal case and the facts of the genocide of the Belarusian people. Together with state TV channels, a series of documentaries has been prepared, while prosecutors have organised exhibitions about the genocide of the Belarusian people in all district centres of the country. Over 1 million 700 thousand people visited them, and the work will continue.

“Before the start of the investigation, it was said, for example, that at least 9,200 villages had been burned in whole or in part. However, based on its results, we can assert that this figure is much higher: at least 10,500 settlements. At least 3m people were killed on the territory of the BSSR, although official statistics mentioned different figures for many years – but all were around 2m people. These are the fates of specific people, but even one fate stands for the fate of an entire generation,” he added.

Mr. Shved stressed that, following the President’s instruction, the curricula of secondary schools, higher educational institutions, as well as some other sources used for ideological and educational work are being amended. “The truth is paramount for us. As the Head of State says, understanding the essence of fascism and Nazism is the core on which our ideology should be based. While memory is being destroyed and erased in Europe, attempts are being made to do the same in Belarus – so that to later erase us [as the nationality],” he noted.

The Prosecutor General added that Belarus’ closest neighbours – the Russian Federation – exchange information almost daily as part of the investigation of the criminal case of the genocide of the Belarusian people. According to him, like Belarusians, they are interested in revealing and showing the real scale of the tragedy that took place during the Great Patriotic War.

“Meanwhile, there is no interest among those in the western direction: the Baltic States, Poland and Ukraine. This has been announced many times. They said they would not assist us for political reasons. The direct descendants of those Nazis, fascists who committed genocide here, make up the political elite for the most part at present. They are taking revenge, so there is obviously no interest for them in showing the truth and true scales of the atrocities that their ancestors committed. As regards other states, the situation looks intelligible. Speaking of Germany, we received practically no information from it at the initial stage, but documents began arriving last year; the process was quite active, and we are now translating these papers. I cannot comment on the reasons for that, time will tell. As for other states to which we have sent a request to provide legal assistance, there are almost thirty of them. We are now holding correspondence with some countries of Latin America, where there are, perhaps, living SS men. We raise the question of either their extradition or criminal prosecution, and certain correspondence continues with this in view,” Mr. Shved noted.